The present invention relates to the art of making hard candies and, in particular, to a hard candy having a comparatively soft center and method of producing such candy.
Throughout its history, the confectionary industry has continually directed its attention toward producing, among other things, a hard candy product having both desirable organoleptic characteristics and flavor, as well as an attractive, appetizing appearance. Efforts in the art of making hard candy have included replacement of flavor ingredients to reduce costs, minimize calorie content, improve physical characteristics, etc. Basically, such efforts are oriented toward making a suitable product at a reasonable cost.
One notion which frequently recurs throughout the confectionary industry, inclusive of the hard candy art, is to produce an attractive confectionary unit having more than one physical manifestation such as color, texture and light transmission characteristics, and/or more than one component, i.e., a center-filled candy. Usually, confections having such qualities require specialized, mechanically-intricate equipment, as well as additional time and labor to produce.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,260,596 to Mackles shows an edible unit dosage form for delivering a liquid or soft gel product which includes a hard outer shell covering formed by chilling a molten mannitol or mannitol composition in a hemisphere mold until a sufficiently thick wall has been formed. The remaining molten composition is withdrawn leaving a shaped hemisphere. After the shell is made, a liquid or gel product is introduced which may contain a variety of drugs. The shell is then sealed by melting certain water soluble materials, which are generally floatable, such as carbowax, mannitol and sorbitol, and pouring them into the opening in the shell whereupon a roof for the shell is formed upon cooling of the melted material.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,666,388 to Oberwelland, et al. discloses a method for producing hollow "sweetmeats" made, for example, of hard blocked or confectioner's sugar, liquorice, fondant cream, jelly, or confectioner's cream by spinning an open top mould containing a measured quantity of castable confectionary material and cooling the body until it forms a shell. These hollow sweetmeats can be filled with readily volatilizing substances such as alcohol, aroma substances and the like.
In each of these methods, as in most procedures for making a filled candy, separate shell-forming and filling steps are required.
Moreover, U.S. Pat. No. 3,496,886 to Fohr describes a process for manufacturing liquid-filled candies with a crust by cooling a liquid filling consisting of water, sugar, and flavoring agents, to a temperature below the sugar saturation temperature before casting the rapidly cooled filling liquid into molds to form a candy unit with a hard crust. This procedure is limited, however, to a narrow range of candy product. Furthermore with regard to soft candy, U.S. Pat. No. 4,229,484 to Steels, et al. shows a method of making center-filled bars of chocolate by depositing shell forming and filling material from two separated and independently heated hoppers by means of pairs of independently operated plungers.
Therefore, it is among the objectives of the present invention to provide a two-component hard candy product and an efficient, commercially feasible method of producing such a candy.
Another objective is to provide a two-component hard candy product having a soft center and an outer shell portion which, optionally, has optical properties, such as light transmission and color, different from the center or core portion.
A further objective of this invention is to provide an efficient method of producing a two-component hard candy which is readily adaptable to commercial production of the candy.